Die Söhne

The Josephus Trilogy #2

by Lion Feuchtwanger

Whether progress is provable or not, even praisers of times past would have to admit the historical novel of today stacks up favorably alongside its peers of yesterday. Tho past-partisans mightn't allow Rbt Graves' Claudius books, Alfred Neumann's The Devil, Lion Feuchtwanger's Power & Josephus, Th Mann's Joseph & His Brothers the palm over such classics as Defoe's The Journal of the Plague Year, Tolstoy's War & Peace, Flaubert's Salammbo, critical consensus is that modern exponents are obviously better grade than romanticists like Walter Scott, Charles Reade et al. Feuchtwanger's 2nd volume on the Jewish Historian Josephus doesn't let his colleagues' standard down.Flavius Josephus, or Joseph ben Matthias, as his fellow-Jews called him, was a queer sort of hero. Feuchtwanger's 1st volume told how Josephus, after fighting the Romans like an unexceptionable patriot, turned his cloak into a toga to save what he might from the wreck of Judea. Thereafter he never completely got back his countrymen's confidence, never altogether won the Romans' respect. Josephus was never quite sure how he stood with himself. When his hated master, Emperor Vespasian, died & his friend Titus came to the throne, Josephus' wave curled to its crest. Reading over the new edition of his famed book, the Jewish War, gazing at his bust in Rome's Temple of Peace, where only the greatest writers were immortalized, he tells "There are 77 who have the ear of the world, & of these I am one." But when he let his adored Egyptian wife wean away their son to Hellenic heathenishness, when he compromised with his religion for the sake of Roman rewards, he'd "Your Doctor Joseph is a scoundrel."While Titus' infatuation with Berenice, the Jewish princess, lasted, Josephus made hay. But the affair came to an end. To win back his waning popularity, Titus gave freer rein to the antisemites. Josephus' wife & son left him; his son by an earlier marriage died, partly thru his neglect. He went back to Judea, visited the desolate site of what had once been Jerusalem, saw how vexed the land was by its Roman conquerors, by a dangerous new sect called Minaeans or Christians, by the iron orthodoxy of the Jewish doctors of the Law. Sadly he returned to Rome again, determined to be neither hidebound Roman nor hidebound Jew but a citizen of the world. He got back in time to see his emperor Titus die, to be evicted from his house by Domitian, to be mocked by the Roman rabble.

Genres: Historical Fiction, German Literature, Classics, Fiction, Christianity, Germany, Literature

525 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Lion Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish emigre. A renowned novelist and playwright who fled Europe during World War II and lived in Los Angeles from 1941 until his death.

A fierce critic of the Nazi regime years before it assumed power precipitated his departure, after a brief internment in France, from Europe. He and his wife Marta obtained asylum in the United States in 1941 and remained there in exile until they died.

Reviews

[Libros Prestados · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seguimos con las aventuras de Flavio Josefo, el hombre más desesperante del mundo. Lo curioso es que el escritor de la novela hace un retrato del protagonista comprensivo, pero a la vez nada favorecedor. Es como si dijera "Flavio Josefo era así, con sus fallos y aciertos". Y la mayor parte de las veces quieres estrangular al protagonista, pero al mismo tiempo lo entiendes. Porque una cosa que Feuchtwanger hace muy bien es describir los pensamientos y estado emocional de los personajes. Eso no significa que el comportamiento de los mismos no sea a veces algo extraño o ajeno: era otra época y otra(s) cultura(s) y eso es muy obvio en algunas situaciones. Aunque he de decir que por la descripción del personaje, creo que Dorión es mentalmente inestable.

De todas formas lo más atrayente de este libro no han sido las relaciones personales o los conflictos internos de los personajes (aunque tienen su miga), sino el conflicto que se estableción entre las distintas facciones del judaísmo una vez que el templo había desaparecido y Judea no era un territorio mayoritariamente judío. Y sobre todo, el conflicto que se estaba desarrollando entre los más ortodoxos y fieles seguidores de la Ley y las prácticas judías y cierta secta que propugnaba un judaísmo más universal y menos reglado: la secta de los mineos, también conocidos como cristianos.

Esto es sin duda lo que más interesante me ha parecido. De todas formas, esta segunda parte de la trilogía sobre Flavio Josefo sigue siendo una buena novela histórica, el escritor mantiene un buen ritmo, si bien hacia la mitad se hace algo más pesado, y tal vez a Flavio Josefo quieras partirle la nariz de un puñetazo, pero sigue interesandome su historia. Sin duda terminaré la trilogía.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

From what I know about the subject, the first novel of the trilogy, Josephus, is closer to the record than this, the second, The Jew of Rome. While the first simply has to deal with Josephus' betrayal of his past in a crisis, the second has to deal with his rationalizations for it. Here Feuchtwanger presents a very complex and polyvalent personality, torn between his Jewishness, his identification with a faction of the Roman imperial household and a third position, a certain cosmopolitanism.

Again, I enjoyed this ambitious novel and the trilogy in which it rests. The third volume, Josephus and the Emperor, was only acquired later in my perigrinations through the used bookstores of Manhattan.

[Ondřej Šefčík · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psát vícedílný román, založený na biografii, je těžká věc a v této sekci je Feuchtwanger v zásadě "na písku", protože Titova vláda je v zásadě nudná, politická situace taky a jde spíše o psychologický portét Josefa, stále napnutého mezi židovstvím a helénstvím, poznamenaná častným zdvojováním: dvě ženy, dva synové, dva císaři umírající na stejné posteli apod. Psychologicky je to velmi dobře propracováno, čtenář nehledající bojové scény z prvního dílu bude spokojen. Feuchtwanger se zde vypořádává jak s helénismem a židovstvím, tak i s křesťanstvím (bizarně zde akceptuje nesmyslná a pozdní tvrzení farizejského judaismu, ač sám je sekulární levicový žid vzorového charakteru).

[Бекарыс Нуржан · Rating 5 out of 5]

Какой сложный Фейхтвангер. Какие глубокие вопросы. Как монументально показана ничтожность человека перед судьбой, экономикой или Ягве. Какие омерзительные - все - персонажи - от капитана-солдафона до иудейских первосвященников и мелочных императоров, даже на смертном одре считающих свои расходы с точностью до систерция.

Миллениальский Иосиф Флавий, козел отпущения, несущий на себя бремя всех страданий, гражданин мира, иудей, еврей и римлянин, экзистенциален до безобразия и собственного величия.

Отлично сотканное историческое полотно. Пусть и с привкусом горькой соли.

[Ag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!
What an amazing book, what depth of knowledge of the author!

[Silvio Socolinsky]

Muy bueno. Narra el conflicto de un judío que en el siglo IX trata de conciliar su identidad religiosa con el hecho de pertenecer a la nobleza romana, y su participación en la segunda destrucción del Templo de Jerusalem por parte de los romanos. Interesante conflicto psicológico donde además se mezclan relaciones personales con esposas e hijos, y su cuestionamiento de su actividad como escritor.

[Yacoob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Furt nevím, jestli Josífkovi fandím, nebo ne :)